Save the comedy!
That’s the message Paramount Pictures was selling ahead of this weekend’s opening of “The Naked Gun,” a sequel to the 1980-90s franchise and one of the few comedy films getting a theatrical release this year.
Saved for now … perhaps?
The film generated neither blockbuster nor belly-flop results over the weekend, with an estimated $17 million in box office receipts. But the film has received strong reviews — a 90 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an A- grade on CinemaScore, an exit polling system. And executives at Paramount Pictures think those reviews combined with positive word of mouth will easily help the studio recoup its investment in the film. The comedy, from director Akiva Schaffer, cost $42 million to make with tens of millions more spent to market it.
Theatrical comedy is the genre that has been most decimated by the streaming era, and the one that comedians and comedy writers desperately want to return to the big screen. These films began falling off in 2010, according to David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office numbers. Today, the genre generates less than half the box office revenue it once did.
How you define a comedy determines how many comedies have been released this year. To some, “The Naked Gun,” starring Liam Neeson as the bumbling Los Angeles police officer Frank Drebin Jr., is only the second straight-up comedy to hit theaters this calendar year. (Sony Pictures’ “One of Them Days,” released in January, is the other.) Another comedy, the PG-rated “Freakier Friday” from Disney, will come out next weekend.
“For those of you who don’t remember the original ‘Naked Gun,’ there used to be these movies called comedies,” one of the film’s producers, the “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane, said at a screening in Los Angeles. “It’s been so long since one came out that Paramount asked me to explain to you that it is supposed to be funny, just so you’re not confused.”
Some comedies on streaming services have found huge audiences. “Happy Gilmore 2,” a sequel to a 1996 film, became Adam Sandler’s most-watched film on Netflix in recent weeks. The streaming company reported that 47 million people tuned in during its first weekend on the service.
As part of its marketing materials for “The Naked Gun,” Paramount created a faux public service announcement with Mr. Neeson speaking straight to the audience, imploring them to buy a ticket. “For the price of one movie ticket,” he said, “you can help rescue a comedy and in the process you’ll get to share a smile, a laugh and even the occasional groan with the people in your very own community.” It directed users to a site that sells movie tickets.
The movie also got some attention because of disclosures of a budding real-life romance between Mr. Neeson and another star of the movie, Pamela Anderson, who is having a career renaissance after her role in “The Last Showgirl.”
For the weekend, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” topped the box office charts in its second week in theaters, with an estimated $39 million, a steep 67 percent drop off but one that brings its domestic total to $196 million. Two other new films debuted: the animated “The Bad Guys 2” opened in the second slot and grossed an estimated $22 million for the frame. Neon’s horror film “Together” landed in the sixth spot and earned an estimated $6.8 million over the three-day frame and $11 million since it opened on Wednesday.
Nicole Sperling covers Hollywood and the streaming industry. She has been a reporter for more than two decades.
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